The economic recovery in 2023 has achieved certain results, with GDP growth reaching 52%, which is a very good result in terms of data.
However, if we delve into the details of economic growth, we will find that the main driving force of economic growth last year was investment, especially the investment of state-owned enterprises, while the rest of consumption and foreign trade were tepid, and the new investment of private enterprises was not satisfactory.
The most obvious manifestation of consumption sluggishness is that the retaliatory consumption of ** not only did not appear, but consumption downgrade became more and more common, the strong rise of Pinduoduo, and the major e-commerce companies began to roll up the low-price market, which is enough to see the shrinkage of consumer demand.
Some scholars believe that ordinary people do not have money, but save it in the bank. It is true that the deposit data is growing, but we have to take into account that the gap between the rich and the poor in the country is very large, and the wealth of some people is growing, and they put their money in the bank to promote the growth of deposits, but the pressure on most people's income and expenditure is increasing, and they have to repay their mortgages and car loans every month, and they have to support their families, and they can't save much at all.
In other words, people really have no money in their pockets, which can also be seen from the following five aspects.
First, sales of cheap cigarettes are increasing.
In the past, when the economy was good, cigarettes of dozens of yuan were very popular, and in some places with many smokers, these cigarettes that cost dozens of yuan were often out of stock.
But the current situation is that cigarettes priced at about 10 yuan have gradually become the mainstream of smokers' consumption, because many people's incomes are decreasing, and they can naturally save when they have no money in their pockets, and the consumption of cheaper cigarettes has become a common phenomenon.
Second, there has been a downgrade in online shopping.
In the past, when consumers shopped online, they would be more inclined to large platforms such as Tmall and JD.com, not only the goods were guaranteed, but also the delivery speed and after-sales service were also better among many online shopping platforms.
In the past few years, everyone has been willing to buy services for the sake of spending, but the rise of low-cost e-commerce represented by Pinduoduo in 2023 represents that consumers are beginning to tend to e-commerce platforms with lower consumption, and the rest of the e-commerce platforms are also forced to increase investment in low-priced goods in order to attract more consumers.
Volume ** has become the home of the e-commerce platform in 2023, and the general downgrade of online shopping consumption is enough to see that the income of ordinary people is decreasing.
Third, unnecessary shopping is reduced, and the pursuit of the most ** style is no longer pursued.
In the past, when people had money in their pockets, everyone was keen to pursue the most advanced electronic products, and as soon as mobile phones and computers came out, they immediately replaced the old machines in their hands.
However, as incomes decrease, people are reducing unnecessary consumption, and consumer behavior is becoming more rational, as long as there is no obvious jamming or damage to electronic products, there is no need to replace them with new ones.
The sales data of mobile phones in 2023 will drop sharply compared with previous years, and the inventory pressure of mobile phone manufacturers will increase, which also proves this.
Fourth, grocery shopping has become more frugal.
Nowadays, consumers are also pursuing higher cost performance in their daily purchases, and expensive vegetables in the vegetable market have become very difficult to sell, but affordable vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, radish, and potatoes have become more popular.
It doesn't cost much money to buy groceries, but consumers have to save money in this area, which shows that the pressure on ordinary people to balance their finances is indeed very high.
Fifth, the pressure to repay loans has increased.
Before the epidemic, mortgage expenditure accounted for about 4% of the income of many families, but now mortgage expenditure has accounted for 6% of the income of many families, and the remaining income has to be used for daily consumption expenditure.